General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMy Change.org petition: Renounce the Monroe Doctrine
http://www.change.org/petitions/the-obama-administration-and-the-u-s-congress-renounce-the-monroe-doctrineSince the creation of the United States, our government's treatment of the people and the nations of Latin America has been an uninterrupted betrayal of the humane and democratic values that animated our own revolution.
The root of this disgraceful record of intervention, injustice, and iniquity lies in the enunciation, in 1823, of the Monroe Doctrine. While the U.S. was right, at the time, to want to make sure that European countries did not move into Latin America and attempt to re-colonize those states that had just won their independence from Spain and Portugal, we were wrong to interpret the Doctrine to claim Latin America as OUR sphere of influence...a claim that led our leaders, unbeknownst to ordinary Americans, to claim the resources and wealth of the Americas for the use of the United States and, as time passed, U.S.-and multinational-owned corporations.
Every brutal military intervention in Latin America, every overthrow of a sovereign Latin American government by the U.S.(or with U.S. assistance)and, today, the continuing and unjustified blockade of Cuba, were or are justified by the invocation of the Monroe Doctrine.
What was meant as an anti-imperial statement became, instead, a roadmap for economic imperialism by the United States and American-owned corporations.
In a modern, democratic world, it is unacceptable for any country to dominate any OTHER country...economically as well as politically.
And our country's use of the Monroe Doctrine to create and maintain economic and social injustice in Latin America ultimately endangers both OUR own living standards AND our national security.
The United States needs to proclaim itself, once again, as a champion of democracy(political, social, and economic)throughout the Hemisphere.
This can only be done if the Monroe Doctrine is renounced, and then replaced by a new Democracy Doctrine, committing the U.S. to support of a democratic, non-exploitative and egalitarian social order for the whole of the Americas.
(note...I need 98 more initial signatures before it gets on the main part of the Change.org site...please sign now, if you are at all willing. This is an idea we need to spread.)
Recursion
(56,582 posts)Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)Last edited Sun Dec 16, 2012, 12:19 PM - Edit history (1)
http://www.isthatcherdeadyet.co.uk/Seriously, though, the Falklands War had nothing to do with the Monroe Doctrine...Britain had claimed the Falklands as British territory since before the Doctrine was enunciated...the Doctrine would only have been contravened if Argentina had already held the Malvinas(Falklands)and then Britain, out of nowhere, had suddenly launched an invasion force to take them FROM Argentina.
This is also why there are still British, French, and Dutch territories in the Western Hemisphere(and why some former holdings of those European powers ONLY gained their independence in the 1950's or later). If the Monroe Doctrine worked the way you seem to think it works, the U.S. would have sent out the Navy and the Marines in the 1820's to clear the British, French, and Dutch out of the Caribbean and Guyana.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)I try not to actively wish death on people, so I'll leave it at that.
msanthrope
(37,549 posts)Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)The Doctrine didn't actually apply in that case because the Falklands had been claimed by Britain before the Doctrine came into force.
It's still something we need to break with...and replace with a Democracy Doctrine instead.
The United States has no more right to dominate the Western Hemisphere than any other country...and Latin America and all its resources should belong TO the Latin Americans.
That's the only way the U.S. can ever play a positive role in this hemisphere...to accept that we are simply one nation among many, and not the natural regional overlord.
Agony
(2,605 posts)Education is a tough row to hoe...
Eduardo Galeano's "OPen Veins of Latin America" do you think he read it?
Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)And even THEN...only the pictures of pretty horsies.